Ep 155: Harvard Business School Professor Amy C. Edmondson on the Science of Failing Well
Nov 12, 2024
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Amy C. Edmondson, the Novartis Professor at Harvard Business School and an expert on psychological safety, shares her insights on how leaders can help teams embrace failure. She distinguishes between mistakes and failures, outlining three types of failure. The conversation emphasizes fostering a culture where intelligent failures are celebrated as learning opportunities, advocating for a growth mindset. Edmondson stresses the importance of leader care and open communication to encourage experimentation and innovation within organizations.
Embracing failure as a valuable teacher fosters personal and team growth by transforming mistakes into opportunities for learning and improvement.
Creating a psychologically safe environment empowers team members to communicate openly about failures, enhancing collective learning and innovation within the organization.
Deep dives
The Importance of Failing Well
Failure is a natural part of both work and life, and how one responds to failures can significantly influence personal and team growth. Embracing failure can serve as a powerful teacher, providing valuable lessons that contribute to improvement. This perspective encourages leaders to create environments where failure is not vilified, but rather seen as an opportunity for learning and development. The focus shifts from hiding mistakes to understanding how to use them as stepping stones toward greater success.
Psychological Safety in the Workplace
Psychological safety is defined as a work environment where individuals feel free to express their ideas, concerns, and mistakes without fear of negative repercussions. This concept is crucial for fostering open communication, where team members feel secure enough to highlight errors and contribute to a culture of learning. When team members are willing to share their mistakes, organizations can benefit from collective learning and problem-solving. This environment empowers teams to confront challenges head-on and innovate without the paralyzing fear of failure.
Understanding Different Types of Failures
Failings can typically be categorized into three types: mistakes, basic failures, and intelligent failures. Mistakes occur when there is a deviation from known practices and are often preventable. Basic failures are the outcomes of undesired results due to errors and misjudgments, while intelligent failures arise from thoughtful experimentation in uncharted territories. Recognizing these distinctions helps individuals and teams understand the nature of their failures and encourages them to embrace intelligent failures as necessary steps for growth and innovation.
Embracing Risk to Foster Innovation
In a rapidly changing work environment, leveraging intelligent failures becomes essential for innovation and growth. Leaders are encouraged to acknowledge the novelty of their projects and the inherent risks involved, establishing a culture that prioritizes experimentation and learning. By allowing team members to take calculated risks and assuring them that failures are acceptable, organizations can foster creativity and adaptability. This shift in mindset from avoiding mistakes to proactively seeking opportunities for learning can lead to significant advancements and success in achieving organizational goals.
Are you a leader who wants to help your team learn to risk more and fail well? In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Amy C. Edmondson sits down with our Jason Jaggard to unpack her research behind her latest book, The Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well. Their conversation includes the difference between a mistake and a failure, the 3 categories of failures, and how to encourage a team to experiment and learn quickly.
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